The total cryptocurrency market capitalization reached its highest level in over two months on Jan. 13 after breaking above the $900 billion mark on Jan. 12. While the 15.5% year-to-date gain sounds promising, the level is still 50% below the $1.88 trillion crypto market cap seen before the Terra-Luna ecosystem collapsed in April 2022. “Hopeful skepticism” is probably the best description of most investors' sentiment at the moment, especially after the recent struggles of recapturing a $1 trillion market capitalization in early November. That rally to $1 trillion was followed by a 27.6% correction in three days and it invalidated …

The beginning of 2022 saw both the crypto market cap and the non-fungible token (NFT) market reaching incredibly healthy status. Crypto reached a strong $2.5 trillion in value, and NFTs peaked after 2021’s exponential growth. As in previous crypto bull markets, new projects gained significant attention, which drove aggressive speculative investment; the Terra ecosystem being a prime example. Moreover, both retail and venture capitalists were heavily investing in what was fast becoming an overcrowded space. All this activity was taking place against a backdrop of a wider macroeconomic environment that felt unendingly strong, and with easy access to borrowing at …

Web3 accelerator Beacon has wrapped up its first cohort with 13 graduating companies and has provided a venue for project founders to demo their blockchain-based startups. Beacon’s first 12-week cohort, dubbed Cohort 0, kicked off in October with 15 companies across various cryptocurrency subsectors, including decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming and infrastructure. Beacon held a demo day on Jan. 10 with 13 graduating companies: Arcana, Blinkmoon, ChapterX, Colexion, Community Gaming, Cubist, FastLane, Meta Apes, Mystic Moose, Nillion, Davos Protocol, Timeswap and Ylide. Polygon co-founder and Beacon creator Sandeep Nailwal described the first batch of graduates as the “MVP of Beacon” because …

The Metaverse and Virtual Reality (VR) go hand in hand in the public’s imagination and platforms including Somnium Space, Crypto Voxels, and Meta’s Horizon Worlds already support the technology. But despite describing itself as a “decentralized virtual reality platform” on its website, the browser-based 3D metaverse platform Decentraland still lacks VR. Sean Ong, founder of extended reality specialists XR Dev Studio, sits on a team that has developed an “alpha” version of the VR platform. He explained that while “VR has always been part of Decentraland’s vision,” the Decentraland Foundation has been prioritizing the implementation of core features ahead of …

2022 was a watershed year for crypto venture capital, as investors poured tens of billions of dollars into blockchain-focused startups despite the overwhelmingly bearish trend in asset prices. Is the VC-dominated crypto funding model good for the industry? Only time will tell. Cointelegraph Research is still in the process of tallying all the funding figures for the year, but 2022 easily outpaced all other years in terms of total capital raised and deals completed. VC inflows were above $14 billion in each of the first two quarters before receding to just under $5 billion in the third quarter — still …

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX says it is considering using legal avenues to recover all payments and contributions handed out by its associated entities and former executives, which could include the millions in political donations made from its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. In a Dec. 19 press statement, FTX said it had already “been approached by a number of recipients of contributions or other payments” that were made by, or at the direction of Sam Bankman-Fried or other officers, adding those entities have sought “directions for the return of such funds.” Sharing our press release just issued: FTX Debtors Announce Process …

The Digital Currency Group and its affiliates (DCG), which manages $296.7 million (280 million euros) in deposits and digital assets of crypto exchange Bitvavo for off-chain staking services, suspended repayments citing liquidity problems amid the bear market. However, Bitvavo announced to prefund the locked assets, preventing DCG-induced service disruption for users. With users proactively exploring self-custody options as a means to safeguard their funds, an acute liquidity crisis is expected to loom over exchanges. DCG cited liquidity problems as it suspended repayments, temporarily halting users from withdrawing their funds. Bitvavo, on the other hand, decided to prefund the locked assets …

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped 8.1% in the past two days after failing to break the $880 billion resistance on Dec. 14. The rejection did not invalidate the 4-week-long ascending channel, but a weekly close below $825 billion will confirm a shift to the lower band and reduce the support level to $790 billion. The overall investor sentiment toward the market remains bearish, and year-to-date losses amount to 66%. Despite this, Bitcoin (BTC) price dropped a mere 2% on the week, down to the $16,800 level at 17:00 UTC on Dec. 16. A far different scenario emerged for altcoins …

Amber has completed a new $300 million Series C funding round, led by blockchain-focused venture capital company Fenbushi Capital US, the firm announced on Twitter on Dec. 15. The new funding round comes as Amber has decided to pause its previous Series B funding and proceed with Series C instead due to FTX collapse. Prior to the failure of FTX, Amber was in process of completing an extension of its Series B at a $3 billion valuation. As previously reported, the company was planning to raise $100 million as part of the Series B funding, targeting to complete the round …

Does the crypto industry’s funding space need an overhaul? This is one of many questions swirling in the wake of FTX’s downfall: When the prominent exchange collapsed, it left behind a long line of helpless creditors and lenders — including many promising projects dependent on funds promised by Sam Bankman-Fried and company. But there is a bigger problem at the heart of the current funding picture, wherein deep-pocketed venture capital firms throw their weight around in the low-liquidity Web3 market, heavily backing early-stage projects before cashing out at a profit once retail has FOMO'd into the market. For all the …

Crypto lending platform Genesis has informed its customers that its withdrawal freeze is likely to last “additional weeks” amid efforts to stave off a potential bankruptcy filing. In a Dec. 7 letter to its customers shared by Genesis to Cointelegraph, interim CEO Derar Islim — who took the temporary helm of the company in August — said it will be weeks for them to formulate a recovery plan that could see withdrawals reopened, stating: “At this point, we anticipate that it will take additional weeks rather than days for us to arrive at a path forward.” The letter also stated …

In a move to tone down the negative impacts of a bear market and ecosystem collapses, crypto exchange Gate.io launched an industry liquidity support fund with an initial commitment of $100 million. With investors moving their funds away from exchanges into self-custody, market liquidy concerns are an immediate threat to struggling crypto businesses. Gate.io’s $100 million commitment aims to support companies looking to restrategize and adapt to changing market conditions. The liquidity support aims to help crypto businesses maintain their focus on their business while being protected from market uncertainties. The announcement read: “The $100 million will be allocated to …